In 1865, during the American Civil War, Union prisoners of the Confederate Army escape in a hot-air observation balloon. The five escapees are Captain Cyrus Harding (Michael Craig), war correspondent Gideon Spilitt (Gary Merrill), Sgt. Jack Pencroft (Percy Herbert), sailor and Pencroft's adopted son Herbert "Bert" Brown (Michael Callan), and Cpl. Neb Nugent (Dan Jackson).
Herbert: "Hey, I know that uniform. Your'e a Union war correspondent."
Spilitt: "Very observant of you young man."
Their balloon crashes into the Pacific Ocean near New Zealand and the fugitives swim to an uncharted island. They are joined by two shipwrecked women, Lady Mary Fairchild (Joan Greenwood) and Elena Fairchild (Beth Rogan). The island is menaced by pirates and gigantic prehistoric animals, which turn out to be experitments of Captain Nemo (Herbert Lom), who wants to end starvation in the world. Captain Nemo says, "Contact with my own species has always disappointed me. Solitude gives me a freedom of mind and an independence of action."
Neb Nugent: "Captain... what language is this?"
Captain Harding: "It's Latin. 'Mihi libertas necessest.'"
Lady Fairchild: "I must have liberty."'
There are giant chickens, crabs, squid, a phorusrhacos, and an ammonite. A couple wander into a giant honeycomb. "What's that buzzing noise?" they ask, "It's getting closer." They are giant bees, of course. Eventually Nemo helps them escape from an erupting volcano in his submarine, the "Nautilus". Unfortunately, Captain Nemo perishes.
MYSTERIOUS ISLAND is based on a two-part 1874 novel by Jules Verne, a sequel to his "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea". Fairly loyal to Verne's book, the highlights of the movie are Ray Harryhausen's amazing stop-motion animation sequences. The monsters include a giant flightless bird called a Phorusrhacos and a giant cephalopod called a Chambered Nautiloid.
This action and adventure sci-fi fantasy is excellent. The combination of Ray Harryhausen with musical composer Bernard Hermann can't be beat. However, the movie tends to slow down between the special effects scenes. MYSTERIOUS ISLAND has been filmed at least nine times in the past century, and this version by director Cy Endfield is the best and most popular.
MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1929) has sound and and was shot in Technicolor (!) for MGM. Unfortunately, it survives only in black and white. On a volcanic island near the kingdom of Hetvia rules Count Andre Dakkar (Lionel Barrymore), a leader and scientist who has ended class distinction on his island. His daughter Countess Sonia (Jacqueline Gadsden) and her fiance Nicolai Roget (Lloyd Hughes) escape in a submarine just before Baron Hubert Falon (Montagu Love) of Hetvia invades. The Baron chases Roget in a second submarine and on the ocean floor they discover a land of dragons, giant squid and a humanoid race. Lucien Hubbard directed.
MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1951) has a similar plot to the 1961 version, except space travellers from the planet Mercury show up to complicate the plot. The aliens seek radioactive material to destroy Earth. Rulu (Karen Randle) puts people into a trance a few times with little effort. Captain Harding is played by Richard Crane, Pencroft is played by Marshall Reed, Bert Brown is played by Ralph Hodges, Captain Nemo is played by Leonard Penn, and the Mercurians are played by George Robotham, and Sid Ross. Spencer Gordon Bennett directed.
THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND OF CAPTAIN NEMO (1973) stars Omar Sharif as Captain Nemo and Amboise Bia as Neb. Many consider it the most faithful adaptation of the Jules Verne novel to date, although it adds some new sci-fi touches such as rayguns. This French/Spanish/Italian co-production is extremely rare and no English language version is known to exist. It was once popular around the world as a six-episode TV series version and was directed by Juan Antonio Bardem and Henri Colpi.
There is also a 1941 Russian production directed by Eduard Pentslin, a 1982 Hong Kong version directed by Cheh Chang, and a 1995 single season Canadian TV series with 23 episodes. Then there's a 2005 TV movie with Patrick Stewart as Captain Nemo and Kyle MacLachlan as Captain Harding, directed by Russel Mulcahy.
